BRIDGEPORT — Returning four starters from last year's Final Four team, the UConn women were expected to mesh their motivated veterans with some highly regarded freshmen to create a much more dangerous team.

Perhaps like no other time this season, those elements came together Saturday as the No. 1-seeded Huskies embarrassed No. 4 Maryland, 76-50, in the NCAA Sweet 16 in front of a sellout crowd of 8,594 fans at Webster Bank Arena.

The Huskies reached the regional final for the eighth consecutive season. Monday, they get a rematch of last year's regional final against No. 2 Kentucky, which beat Delaware, 69-62, on Saturday.

Last season, UConn beat Kentucky, 80-65, to advance to its fifth straight Final Four. The Huskies are 13-5 in their previous 18 regional final appearances.

"Connecticut makes great teams look really bad, and obviously you saw that on display today," Maryland coach Brenda Frese said. "They had tremendous firepower. Any time they were able to get an open look, even late in the shot clock, they were able to stick it and bury it in the basket. And obviously we really struggled against their defense. They made it very difficult."

They made it look easy by getting contributions from a lot of players, includnig each of the three freshmen. Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck combined for 35 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, five steals, four blocked shots and only one turnover while shooting 16-of-28 from the field and log-

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ging 76 minutes.

"You never know how those guys are going to play in the NCAA tournament," coach Geno Auriemma said. "This obviously was something that I had hoped for. If you (get something from) two out of the three, it would've been great. And all three of them really had an impact and I'm really proud of them. They really, really showed a lot. It was fun to watch."

Stewart finished with 17 points on 7-of-15 shooting and also had eight rebounds and four blocked shots while Jefferson scored 10 points with three assists, two steals and no turnovers. Tuck scored eight points on 4-for-5 shooting.

"I think definitely this is our time and we want to make sure that our teammates can rely on us," Stewart said. "And we want to go out and make a difference on the court, and I think that's what we're proving."

They also got some help from the veterans as Mosqueda-Lewis tied Stewart for game-high scoring honors with 17, but shot 8-of-21. She had seven rebounds, three assists and three steals. And Stefanie Dolson, despite playing with nagging leg injuries, gutted out 26 minutes of play to finish with nine points and 10 rebounds.

"They didn't play like freshmen at all," Dolson said. "They didn't second-guess anything they did. They came out confident and ready to play. They knew exactly what they needed to do for our team and what they can do. Moriah just played awesome defense and was a great point guard. Stewie just drove to the basket, got rebounds and blocks. And Tuck was just big. She just bullied herself to the basket and put it in. They all played great."

Alyssa Thomas scored a team-high 13 points for Maryland (26-8), but she shot 4-of-16 from the field thanks to superb defense by Kelly Faris, who had eight points, five rebounds, three assists and no turnovers.

Thomas couldn't keep the Terps in the game even for a full half.

With Maryland leading, 10-8, the Huskies went on a 13-3 run to take a 21-13 lead. Dolson started UConn's run with a 3-pointer and finished it with a layup. In between, Stewart and Faris hit threes while Jefferson scored on a fearless drive to the basket.

Maryland closed to within three points again at 23-20 on back-to-back baskets by Chloe Pavlech and Thomas, but then a pair of threes by Hartley and Faris extended it back to nine.

The Huskies led by as many as 14 points in the first half, 35-21, before missing their final five shots as Maryland scored the final five points before intermission.

In the midst of Maryland's run, Auriemma was given a technical foul by referee Joe Vaszily for excessively arguing a no-call on a Faris drive to the basket.

The technical was called with 7.5 seconds to play in the half. Thomas made one of two free throws. Then on the ensuing possession Hawkins made an 18-foot jumper to make it a 35-26 game at the half.

The Huskies scored the first nine points of the second half to extend their lead to 44-26.

"Even to be down nine to Connecticut is too big of a gap," Frese said. "I thought we would come out of the locker room with a lot more energy, but I thought Connecticut came in with the knockout punch in the second half."

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